


after

by kiyala



Category: Brick (2005)
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-28
Updated: 2012-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-17 04:37:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiyala/pseuds/kiyala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What Brendan does after the events of the movie. How Brendan and the Brain met.</p>
            </blockquote>





	after

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flyakate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyakate/gifts).



> Er, first attempt at writing Brick fic! \o/ I tried keeping the tone of the film, but I don't think I did particularly well. Still, my love for these characters, let me show you it.

The thing they hold once the dust settles… 

It’s not exactly a funeral. There are too many bodies for that. It’s just a mass-service with too many mourners, too many memories for Brendan to handle. 

He stands there, stock-still, fringe in his face and hands in his pockets, and doesn’t say a word. There’s a bubble around him; anyone who survived, who knew _enough_ knows that Brendan was involved. Maybe he was a bit unbalanced before, but now they take that extra little step to the side because he’s dangerous. He’s a threat.

Brain steps up beside him when the crowd’s died down a little. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other and turns his head, not quite looking at Brendan, not quite looking away.

“Did you manage to get any sleep?”

“Couldn’t.” Brendan doesn’t look at him. Brain follows his gaze. Sees a portrait of Emily leaning against the wall. He looks away. 

He doesn’t ask Brendan what he’s going to do now. He isn’t even sure if Brendan knows, and it’s probably the last thing that he needs right now. Brain doubts that it’s going to take a very big push to have Brendan immersed in something new, shaking things up all over again. 

Brain gives Brendan a sidelong look. He doesn’t look like he’s moved an inch, head bowed, the corners of his mouth turned down. He’s creasing his black suit with the way he’s got his hands shoved in his pockets. He doesn’t care. 

It’s not going to get any easier for Brendan from here on out and they both know it. Even the saps know better than to take him at face value now. But regardless of what Brendan gets himself into, Brain knows that he’ll be there.

«·»

Thing is, if it wasn’t for Brendan, Brain would be nobody.

Brain knows this because before Brendan, he _was_ a nobody. He was the kid who’d get to school before the sun was even up, hoping that the janitor got lazy and forgot to lock the library behind him again. 

He was the kid that nobody even looked at twice, holed up in between bookshelves, a stack of books in front of him while he’d scramble his Rubik’s Cube again and again, hoping that this time, he could ignore his muscle memory for long enough that it’d actually be a challenge.

That was how Brendan had found him, too much potential and nothing to do with it. Before Emily, before Kara. Back when they were both just freshmen trying to figure out where they belonged in the complexity that was school.

Brain watches. Brendan _does_. Inaction has never sit well with him. Brain never stops him from doing what needs to be done. He doesn’t try and talk Brendan out of anything because while it doesn’t make sense to him, he knows that it makes sense to Brendan. 

It’s why they work so well together.

And yeah, now that he’s got Brendan, Brain isn’t so invisible. He’s _somebody_ , because he knows things. Brendan doesn’t really talk to him where others can see. Brain can understand that; he knows how much information people can give away without realising—they both do—and Brendan likes playing his cards close to his chest. That doesn’t mean that people don’t notice anyway. 

Brain doesn’t mind it, because being invisible is different to being in the shadows. People know he exists, but they’re all still so wrapped up in their own worlds that he doesn’t really _matter_ and Brain is used to that, too. He’s used to fading into the background, parents too busy with their own lives to drop him off at school, nobody looking twice at the kid who walks down the long road just to catch the bus before dawn. The bus driver doesn’t even think twice, just takes his fare and keeps going, nothing but the roar of an ancient engine to fill the morning silence when things are yet to wake. 

But Brendan sees him, sees the pile of books, the homework, the discarded Rubik’s Cube that’s become way too easy for him. 

Brendan says, “You’re wasting away between these damn shelves.”

It’s not exactly a, _come with me_ , but Brain goes anyway.

«·»

It doesn’t really take that long for Brendan to show up in the library, his lip busted again.

It’s been about a month since… since _everything_ , Brain would say, but he knows that it wasn’t the ending. It wasn’t even the beginning—that was the first op with Jerr—but Brendan’s come a long way from that. It means the odds of coming out clean are even smaller this time.

At first, Brendan doesn’t say a word. He just looks at Brain from behind his specs, sitting slightly skewed. Brain can see the resolve in them, the hunger for _more_.

This is going to go badly. Brain knows it. Brendan isn’t going to be happy doing this, but he’s not going to be happy with anything else. He’s going to keep finding things to pick at, more ops to run until one of them comes back to bite him. He’ll keep the bulls off his back for as long as he can, but that’s not a sure thing, not even with the VP behind him. 

“You gonna tell me to walk away?” Brendan’s voice is flat, but Brain hears it for the challenge it is. Brendan knows this is a bad idea. Just like Brain, he also knows that he doesn’t really have much of a choice. This is the path he’s picked for himself.

Brain leans back in his chair, fingers twitching for his Cube before he brings them up to adjust his glasses. He meets Brendan’s dark eyes and says, with absolutely no conviction. “Walk away.”

Brendan sighs, shoves his hands in to his pockets. Still as ineffective as ever. At least now, they can both say that Brain tried. Even if he really didn’t.

This isn’t going to be an easy path. Doesn’t mean Brendan has to walk it alone.

“What do you need me to do?”


End file.
